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September 29, 2006

Station Fire: 'On our way to a lifetime of great years'

The Station fire has been called an accident, but kindergartners learn that "most accidents can be prevented, and that there are consequences," said Angel O. Amitrano, who lost her father, Thomas Barnett, in the fire.

Amitrano didn't meet her father until she was 9.

"My father was 17 when I was born. I was 21 when he died."

They had grown especially close in the final four years of his life. He gave her the emotional and financial support to get through college, but he couldn't go to her graduation. He died at 38.

"We were on our way to a lifetime of great years together," she said.

Within two weeks of Barnett's death, Amitrano's grandfather, "who was healthy as an ox," she said, suffered a stroke and died.

Now she's heartbroken to know that her father won't be able to walk her down the wedding aisle, that her future children won't be able to know their grandfather or great-grandfather, though they might look just like them.

"I pick up the phone still to call my father, and I have to hang up the phone and cry."

Posted by Jack Perry  at 2:29 PM | Permalink

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